By the Way, There is Such Thing as a Tesseract
by spyrothebandicoot
Summary: It was a dark and stormy night. There was a wild and powerful source in the universe. It could bend time and space at will. It could create or it could destroy, and it lived inside a young girl. Many in the universe wanted this power, to bend matter at will. They sought to control this girl, but they needed to find her first. This girl fled, aided by a lonely man in a blue box.
1. Chapter 1

He finds her sitting on the floor, her back up against the closet door. She is surrounded by stacks of dusty old books, some stacks towering even above his head. They are piled on top of one another haphazardly, ready to topple at any moment. She is sorting, creating smaller stacks out of the bigger ones, seemingly multiplying the books in the room. It cools her mind, the sorting. The job was perfect for her, it kept it in control. Sorting, stacking and organizing, it all kept her mind from wandering, kept her focused.

The Doctor allowed himself a pat on the back. He had done well, placing her with the Old Man. Up until this moment the Old Man had been the right choice, the best option. Today, though, everything had changed. He stood in the doorway, leaning against the doorway with all the nonchalance the moment didn't have. She hadn't looked up yet, that was how he knew. It wasn't her he'd be speaking to, not entirely.

"Come, Tessa, we have to go."

"Why?" Her voice was quiet and soft, yet imposing. It reverberated with of power, it was a voice he did not recognize.

"Because they're coming." She already knew this, he told her anyway.

"So?"

"Tessa," his voice became soft, he was appealing to the girl he knew was inside. The one with the blonde curls and happy green eyes. "The ones who killed your parents, they are coming for you. Now. As we speak they are rushing towards this place, ready to catch you. I don't aim to be here when they come, and neither should you."

"Why do they want me?" This thing had an ego, he realized. It wanted to be told.

"You have the vortex. All of time an' space, inside you. You are a time machine, in the blink of an eye you can do what you like. The energy inside you... You're likely one of the most powerful beings in the universe."

"More than a time lord?" She turns her head upwards to look at him. A shiver runs down his spine.

"Yes." He waits, silently urging the thing to leave, to let the real Tessa through. To let her have control again.

"If I am so powerful how can they capture me?" She asks.

"They don't mean to capture you, they mean to mislead you. And that's far worse." A young girl, barely seventeen, searching as all young people do before they grow old and learn to settle. To stop looking. Without her parent's love as guiding light, a constant. Oh, the irony. If it wasn't so sad it would be funny. Then again, he thinks, maybe it still is. She sees a smile crack his face, making it even lovelier than before. She smiles back, and like that, it leaves her.

"Doctor. It's been a long time." She blinks, still hazy, still not completely there.

"What is time?" He grins and she smiles back. Two souls who understand the complete incompetence and power of time.

"I always thought you'd come back. I remember..."

"What? What do you remember?" Not that night, no...

"My mother. She... loved you. Spoke of you often, as did my father."

"A good family, that family you had."

"Yes." She swallows. "You.. Brought me to granddad."

"I did. Here was the best place, he loved you so. He did well?"

"Yes. We must leave?"

"We must."

"Doctor... Sometimes, I can feel it. Sometimes..."

"Now isn't the time, Tessa. We have to go, now."

She blinks again, pushes books gently out of her way. He reaches his hand down and she grabs hold of it. It is a strong hand, a warm hand. Hers is soft and small in it, a hand that holds all of time and space.

When she sees it, she smiles. The blue box. She remembers it fondly, though not distinctly. She was so young when she rode in it. So young when it came to visit. The blue calms her, eases the panic in her fast-beating heart. Seeing it is like slipping on an old sweater after a long day in uncomfortable clothes. It has been a very long day.

Standing in front of the box is a young woman. She is blonde, dressed slightly oddly, and pretty. She looks at the two of them with concern. "This is what they're after?" the woman asks the Doctor, referring to Tessa. She has a thick, but not unpleasant accent. Tessa stops, wanting to go towards the box but unsure of the woman. The Doctor continues a few steps, then turns back to Tessa. "C'mon, then!" he urges. Then he turns back to the woman. "Did I not mention it was a who, not a what?" he asks, slightly guilty. "No, you didn't," the woman replies, giving him the look a mother gives a fibbing child. "Ah. Well. Introductions then. Tessa, this is my friend Rose Tyler. She's from London, England. Rose, this is Tessa. She holds all of time and space in the palm of those dainty little hands. And I'm the Doctor," he nods once, pleased with himself.

Rose sighs. "C'mon, then, Tessa. You look like a deer in the head lights, standin' there with those wide green eyes. Geez, Doctor, it's like you brought home a puppy."

It is not lost on Tessa that Rose calls the TARDIS 'home'. It is not lost on her how comfortable she is with the Doctor.

"One powerful puppy," the Doctor says, walking into the TARDIS.

"We haven't all day, you know!" He calls back out.

Rose walks forward, wraps her arm around Tessa's shoulder, and leads her into the TARDIS.

"Sorry about him, he's a little bonkers," Rose assures Tessa. Tessa nods.

"I think I used to think it was fun," she confides.

"So did I," Rose says, with a roll of her deep brown eyes.

Tessa is not surprised to see the big, open space inside the TARDIS or the odd decor. This is not lost on Rose.

"Where are we going?" Rose asks, leaning against the control board where the Doctor works furiously.

"Anywhere far away," he tells them, not even glancing up.

"Do I get to say goodbye?" Tessa asks softly.

The Doctor looks up, notices how small Tessa looks standing there in the wide opening of the TARDIS. He locks eyes with her.

"No," he tells her, his own voice matching the quietness of hers. "I'm afraid not."

Tessa nods once. "I didn't think so."

Rose looks at the poor girl with pity. Tessa is even younger than she was when she joined the Doctor.

"Who you gotta say goodbye to?" she asks. She knows it's none of her business, but she asks anyway. "I had to say goodbye to my mum. And my mate Mickey, we left him in 'nother dimension. Captain Jack, too, though he's still out there somewhere," Rose tells Tessa, trying to comfort the girl, her words coming out to fast as she tries to justify asking such a personal question in the first place.

Tessa looks around the TARDIS absentmindedly. "Oh, Captain Jack won't be a problem..." her voice sounds distant. Then she locks eyes with Rose. "My grandad," she tells her, as if she hadn't just spoken. "Only my grandad."

Rose is a little frightened by the weird habits of the new girl. Something feels... not right. Still, the poor thing had to leave her granddad behind. And not only that, she only had her granddad to leave behind.

"I'm sorry," Rose says genuinely. "It's not always goodbye forever."

"Yeah," Tessa shrugs. She doesn't want to think about it.

"Ah-ha!" The Doctor interrupts with impeccable, perhaps timed, timing. The TARDIS begins to make a whirring noise, and they disappear.


	2. Chapter 2

She sleeps peacefully in the corner. Rose leans against the TARDIS' center console, watching her.

Tessa seems so young, curled up with an old blanket Rose brought from home. The blanket still smells like Rose's old apartment, she uses it when she needs to think of home. When they had landed on some obscure space station to plan their next step, the girl had just looked so tired Rose had to run and get it for her.

Handing her the blanket, Rose had offered a small smile. "I know it's not much, but it always makes me feel better when I'm, y'know, missin' home," she told Tessa. Tessa reached out slowly, taking the blanket from Rose, then bringing it close to her chest. The gesture of kindness nearly brought tears to Tessa's eyes. She looked from Rose to the Doctor, who worked furiously at the TARDIS' controls.

Tessa swallowed, then spoke softly, "Doctor, where are we going?"

Rose took her eyes from the lost girl and looked to the Doctor for his answer.

"Anywhere," he said, not looking up from his work, "Anywhere far and completely ordinary. Anywhere they might not think to look."

Tessa's heart beat faster at the thought of them. Flashes of memories, or dark cloaks and the smell of burnt flesh. She clutched the blanket tighter, then turned and glanced back at the door.

"Doctor, do I get to say goodbye?" She asked, her voice that of someone desperately trying to control their emotions. The Doctor paused in his work. He looked up and into the young girl's wide eyes. "No," he said, "I'm afraid not." It broke his hearts to deny her this, inside he could feel them shatter. Tessa nodded twice. "Yeah, I thought not," she said and managed a tiny smile. Rose took a step closer to Tessa, putting her hand gently on her arm. "Who're you leavin' behind?" she asked softly.

"Just my granddad," Tessa replied, not taking her eyes off the Doctor.

"I had to say goodbye, to my mum," Rose told her. "And my mate Mickey."

Tessa finally broke eye contact with the Doctor and looked at Rose. Tessa could feel the sadness in the other girl, along with something else. There was something inside Rose... something that brought out the thing inside herself.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor called out. He was trying to distract what was happening between the two girls. He was thankful for the comfort Rose gave to Tessa, but he was worried about what might happen if the power inside Tessa realized what Rose was... What she had been, rather. But then, nothing ever changes, does it?

Tessa shook her head, as if trying to dodge an unseen bug in slow motion. "It's alright. I suppose that's how it is going with you, Doctor. You never get to say goodbye," she said. There was a touch of the voice, the commanding one from earlier, mixed with her soft, sad one.

"It's never goodbye," the Doctor grinned. "Only see you later!" He pulled the lever on the TARDIS, sending them hurtling once again through time and space.

Tessa had taken the blanket to a corner and just sort of curled up and drifted off. And so Rose watched her now, trying to figure the girl out. Tessa was only a few years younger than Rose had been her self when she had joined the Doctor. Even now, Rose knows she can't be more than four or five years older than she was then but she feels so much older. She feels wiser, experienced. She has seen more things in her brief time with the Doctor than most people back home would see in their entire lifetime. Sometimes that worries her, though she's not entirely sure what exactly she's worried about. The Doctor wanders over, leaning against the console next to Rose.

"Why's she sleepin' already? Did you take her from her house in the middle of the night?" Rose asks, pushing abstract worries out of her head.

"It wears her out, when it's on the surface. Normally it's dormant, she never needed it back home," he answers, not giving enough information as usual.

"But what is 'it'? What's inside her?"

"Well... it's not so much inside her as it _is_ her."

Rose sighs "Doctor, what is it?"

The Doctor turns and looks at Rose. She can't tell if his face is worried or excited. He seems rather... tired. "Time. Space. Everything."

"Everything? Like, the whole world?"

"Try worlds. Everything. She's one of the most powerful beings I've ever encountered. It's why they want her, why they need her."

"How? She looks human," Rose says, looking back to Tessa. Dirty blonde waves fall around the girl's sleeping face, blocking her closed eyes from view. Her chest rises and falls, and though it seems to do so rapidly, it all appears perfectly normal. In all regards she looks just like any teenage human girl.

The Doctor thinks of a way to explain Tessa to Rose. It requires an awful lot of back round information, some of which he doesn't entirely care to share. Rose always gets so... testy when he mentions his past traveling partners. It's not like one can go through nine hundred years without meeting a few people. He's also reluctant to bring up the vortex, he's still unsure of how the energies will react with each other.

"Well, she is human. Sort of. Her parents were both human anyway," he says, leaving details out on purpose.

"So why is she... so powerful?" Rose persists. It's hard to believe someone so small, so vulnerable looking, as the girl sleeping before them could be as powerful as he says. "Just how powerful, anyway?"

"She could tear worlds apart," the Doctor says.


	3. Chapter 3

A spot on the TARDIS' control panel begins to beep insistently, interrupting their conversation.

"What is that?" Rose asks, looking around for the source of the noise.

"Oh dear. I do believe we have company," the Doctor says, rushing to where the beeping is coming from. Rose follows. She finds him staring down at a small screen that shows a view of an empty hallway.

"What is that?" she asks again.

"Oh just a little something I rigged up. Gives us picture of the hallway that leads to the particular storage room the TARDIS is currently parked in," the Doctor answers, watching the screen intently.

Rose leans in close with him, trying to spot something in the screen. It looks just like any other empty space station hallway.

"What are we lookin' for?" Rose whispers, feeding off the Doctor's intensity of the seemingly unimportant image.

Suddenly movement flicks across the screen. For just a split second Rose sees something dark, like a shadow, move through the screen. It's too fast for her too see what it is, and if it weren't for the Doctor's sudden "Ah-ha!" she wouldn't be certain she had seen anything at all.

"What as that?" She asks, looking to his face for the answer rather than the screen.

"Let me just... rewind...pause...Ah! There!"

Rose peers closely at the paused image on the screen. It is blurry but she can make a figure out. It looks rather large, but all other features are obscured by a dark cloak. The hood of the cloak covers where the face ought to be and falls down to the ground so she can't even tell if it has feet. In her time with the Doctor she's learned not to take for granted that everything has feet or even a face.

"I still can't tell what it is," she says, shaking her head.

"That," the Doctor says, "is what is hunting our dear friend Tessa." He plays the live feed again and another shadow flits across the screen. "And that is one of it's friends."

There is a noise at the TARDIS' door and they both look up from the screen.

"On a scale of, say, my mother to a Dalek, how bad are they?" Rose asks, her eyes on the door.

"Well, if we're counting your mother as the worst option..."

Rose reaches out and thwacks him on the arm. The Doctor laughs, then his face goes serious.

"Far worse than even your mother."

Rose's blood runs cold and she can feel a shiver run through her. They both keep their eyes on the door.

Tessa sits up, rubbing sleep from her eyes. It takes her a moment to notices the Doctor and Rose, standing stock-still with their gazes locked on the door. Her eyes go slowly from them to the door and back again. She is still covered by most of the blanket but she can feel a chill in the air.

"What? What is it?" She whispers.

"Tessa," the Doctor calmly instructs,keeping his voice low as well "we may be leaving the space station a bit early. If you'd please just stand up and join us over here..."

"But they can't get in, can they? The door's locked. Right?" Rose asks, the worry clear in her voice. When the Doctor doesn't answer immediately she asks again, "Right?"

the Doctor tilts his head slightly, listening. "I don't know," he says. He knows they're right outside the door, he can hear the slightest movement. But why? Why are they still out there, just biding their time? Why don't they just make a move?

Tessa, meanwhile, stands up and makes her way to the Doctor and Rose, the blanket in her hands. She is halfway there when she catches it, a familiar scent, wafting through the TARDIS. The acrid smell of burnt flesh, bringing with it visions of all-encompassing smoke and the intense heat of flames. She pauses, her mind racing with old feelings. Fear, loss, anger, pictures of a little girl hiding in a closet. She looks up at the Doctor. "It's them," she says. Her voice barely makes any noise but he hears her clearly in the silent air. He nods. Rose looks at the two of them. She understands the girl's fear, Tessa is young and from what Rose knows has spent her entire life in a library with her granddad. But the Doctor... The Doctor has stared down Daleks and werewolves. He's saved the world more times than she can count from enemies she couldn't even imagine in her worst nightmares. Yet as he stands next to her she can see the fear in his face. She can feel the TARDIS filling up with the fear, pressing in on all sides. It seeps inside her, too. And then she smells it, that awful smell. She makes a face, covering her nose with her sleeve. "Doctor," she starts, then stops. There is a knock on the door.

The Doctor doesn't take his eyes from Tessa as he calls out, "Yes, who is it?"in a bright and cheery voice that doesn't match the expression in his eyes at all. He is waiting to see what Tessa does. He wants to leave, to just start the TARDIS and go, but he's not sure what they've been doing on the outside. He's not sure if bringing Tessa into the vortex again so soon is a good idea, it might serve to make her condition worse.

The knock comes again. The smell gets stronger. A shiver runs through Tessa's body and her expression turns from one of fear to one of anger. "It's them," she says again, this time her voice strong. "Doctor, I'm going to end this. Now. They will pay."

"Tessa," he warns. She shouldn't have any contact with them, she doesn't know what they can do.

But she doesn't listen. Her green eyes grow distant, yet at the same time they seem to solidify. She turns her back to the Doctor and Rose. With a wave of her hand the door to the TARDIS swings open to reveal two tall figure standing right outside. Their heads are bowed, their hooded faces looking at the ground. Smoke wafts about their feet, moving and swirling as if it had a life of their own. The smoke is thick and as soon as the doors open it starts to seep in, moving along the floor of the TARDIS, obscuring any vision of the floor by the doorway almost immediately.

"Aw, c'mon, I just had that floor cleaned!" the Doctor exclaims.

The heads of the figures rise. Rose peers closely at their faces but she can see no feature except for the lips; white, pasty things seemingly floating in the darkness that is the rest of their features.

"Hello, Doctor. Hello, Tessa. We meet again," the voice comes from the figure on the left, snaking through the air like the smoke at their feet.

"For the last time," Tessa says, her teeth gritted.


	4. Chapter 4

The chuckling echoes through the TARDIS. Tessa's anger grows, they are mocking her. Rose moves closer to the Doctor. "What are they?" she whispers. "They're called Cloaks," he replies but before he can get any farther their heads snap up in unison, looking directly at the pair. At least, Rose assumes they are looking. She still can't see their eyes. "We are power," they say together, "we are hopes and dreams realized. We are control. We are everything you want. We are power." The voices merge together, wrapping around each other and echoing in her very soul. They are, Rose realizes, not speaking put loud at all, but rather communicating directly into her mind. Rose shivers. The doctor is about to offer a snarky reply when the smoke rises suddenly, engulfing everyone and everything. It blocks all vision.

"Doctor!" Rose shouts, reaching out for him. He is nowhere to be found. He was right next to her the moment before, yet now as she waves her arms through the impenetrable fog she cannot reach him. The stench invades her nostrils and permeates her thoughts. Burnt flesh, hot smoke, it is everywhere. She coughs, gagging, shouting his name. "Doctor! Doctor!"

Somewhere far away she hears a voice like Tessa's, muffled as if she were speaking into a pillow. "Where are you?"

"Here! Though I don't exactly know where here is," Rose calls out, thinking Tessa is speaking to her. Tessa shushes her. "I have to find them! I need to see!" The air swirls around Rose, currents pushing in every way but her vision never clears. The smoke is everywhere.

Her eyes begin to burn, she blinks, her eyes pushing tears down her face. A voice sifts through the smoke, speaking to her softly. "You can feel it. Feeeeel. The power. Come, Bad Wolf. Come," it urges. And she can feel it. Something else in the smoke, something almost palpable. She can feel it in her blood and it is not an unfamiliar, or an unpleasant feeling. Power. Control.

"You could stay forever, Rose Tyler. With the right power you could stay with him forever."

Tessa's anger builds, she thrashes wildly through the smog, pushing it with her mind. It moves, only to reveal more smoke. "Where are you?!" She calls out. "Cowards! Show yourselves!" She can feel the power inside her, she knows she could tear everything inside the ship apart in the blink of an eye. But then she would also destroy the Doctor and Rose.

"Over here," they whisper, taunting her. The voice comes from inside her own head. "Over where?" she shouts again, rushing forward. She stumbles, falling to her knees.

"Come, Tessa. When you rule the world you can have anything you want."

"I want my parents, you monster! Those people you murdered!" Tears stream down her face, not just because of the burning smoke.

"We have them, Tesssssa. We have them. Come." The voice calls. Tessa can feel them in her mind, easing the anger. Easing the pain. Suddenly, pictures flood her memory. A house with blue shudders, a couple standing in the doorway, beckoning her near.

"Come. Come. Come."

Tessa reaches forward and her hand bumps into something. A coarse, thick material. The hem of a cloak.

"We can show you how to use your gift, Tessa. We can show you how to bring them back." The voice promises.

Her voice trembles as she asks, "Bring them back? You can bring them back?"

"_We_ can bring them back, Tessa. We can, together. Come now, join us."

Tessa stands on shaky feet, her whole body trembling. A hand finds hers, and gently holds on. The hand is pasty and cold but she hardly notices. All she can see in her head are the images of the blue-trimmed house, the happy couple and a happy little girl with blonde curls. She no longer smells the burnt-flesh smoke; she smells fresh bread baking and the wet of the soil just before it rains. She smells home, not the home of dusty old books and her Grandfather, but the home of long ago. The voice urges her forward and she obeys.

"Yessss, yesss, that'sss it..."

They move calmly though the smoke towards the exit. Then she hears another voice, a strong, urgent voice. "Tessa! Stop!" Her free hand is captured by another, a warm and solid hand. That hand that holds all of time and space. It pulls her back, away from where the cold hand is leading her. For a second her nose wrinkles, then the pleasant aromas return.

"No, you must not stop us, Doctor." The voice is angry now.

The Doctor ignores the voice. He leans in close to Tessa's ear. "They are leading you away Tessa. They are liars. You know that. Come on!"

Tessa grimaces. The Cloaks urge her forward, the cold hand tugs on her. But the warm hand remains steady. It will not budge. The cold hand tugs more violently and she lets out a squeal.

"Tessa. They murdered your parents," the Doctor says.

"And who did not rescue them?" The Cloaks voices counter immediately. They push anger towards Tessa, anger towards the Doctor. She tries to drop his hand. He will not let go.

He hates to, but the Doctor reminds her. "That night. They came. Do you remember?"

"I... I remember the way the paint looked as it peeled off the walls..." her voice is faint, the smoke struggles to muffle it from the Doctor's ears.

"Yes, from the fire. Remember the fire?"

"I remember the heat... I remember scratchy blankets from the closet."

"Yes. That was where I found you." He gives her hand a gentle squeeze.

"You... told me not to look..." The memories surface vaguely, though the smoke tries to oppress them.

"You didn't, did you?"

"No, but I remember... the smell," it dawns on her slowly. The smell... it wasn't fresh baked bread or a soft summer shower. No, it was hot and it was fiery. It was the smell of her home, her parents, her life burning. And she can still smell it in her nostrils. No, it is in her nostrils now! A smile spreads across the Doctor's face as he feels her squeeze his hand back.

"I remember," she says.

"No!" the voice shouts, pulling on her hand. She feels nails scratch her skin, the grip tightening like a vise.

"No," she replies. The energy, suppressed by the smoke, rises back up in her. She can feel it, the vortex, the universe. Time, energy, matter, everything. She blinks and the smoke dissipates, rushing out the TARDIS door like someone turned on a fan. In a second it is all gone. The pasty white lips remain, floating in the darkness of hooded faces, twisted into grimaces. The Cloak's grip remains on her hand. But so does the Doctor's. Tessa smiles a wicked smile, shaking the Cloak's hand off with a flick of her wrist. She raises her now free hand slowly, fingers spread. Then she waves it, and the Cloaks are gone. They don't even have time to scream. In a millisecond she has destroyed their very atoms, completely obliterating them. Tessa lets her hand drop to her side, then she turns to the Doctor, exhaustion written across her face.

"I remember," she whispers. He nods, and pulls her in close. They stay like that for a moment, Tessa silently shaking in his arms.

Rose stands from where she had fallen. Her eyes still burn, her mind is still swirling. Her watery eyes find the blurred vision of the Doctor. The smoke is gone, but its ideas remain.


	5. Chapter 5

The Doctor works hurriedly at the TARDIS' controls. "We're not safe here, we've got to move now," he says, his words coming fast. Rose stands nearby, her legs still a little shaky. "But aren't they gone, Doctor? The Cloaks. Tessa... Destroyed them," she says, glancing at the girl. Tessa stands, shoulders slouched, with a vacant expression on her face.

The Doctor shakes his head. "There're more. There are always more."

"What are they?" Rose presses.

"Murderers," Tessa sneers. The Doctor raises an eyebrow. Tessa is so full of anger, yet so full of power. He had been a fool to ever entertain the notion of her living quietly with the Old Man. In a way, her parents had always been doomed. "They are, well, what they said they were," he explains, still working at the TARDIS, "They are power. No one knows where they came from originally, but now they've come from all over. They've spread across the whole universe, granting wishes. But no one ever really wants what they wish for."

"They grant wishes?" Rose asks, skeptical.

"Wanna be president? King? Queen? Emperor? Are you easily corrupted, willing to do anything? They take advantage of that. And then bam. You're under their control," The Doctor shakes his head. "They've got their nasty little fingers in every corner of the galaxy and they're after us. They won't stop either."

"I can stop them," Tessa looks up. "I can."

The Doctor shakes his head. "No. It'll destroy you, you'll destroy the time-space continuum. Destroying an entire race, that's not lightly done."

Tessa narrows her eyes, staring him down. "I don't care. I can fix things. Isn't that what you do, _Doctor_? Fix things?"

Roses eyes flit from the two. "Look, let's just calm down. What are our options?" She tries to be reasonable.

"We don't have _options_, we just have one. We find somewhere to hold out for a bit while I work on something that can fix Tessa," he says, going back to his work.

"I'm not broken," Tessa insists. She knows she could put everything back together, if he'd let her try. She felt it, she was so close. She could change anything, even the past...

"Well... Your DNA is. It's not human, not completely. It's too altered. If it was human, with all that inside, you'd be dead by now. But with a little bit of time, I could change that. I could make you normal, Tessa," he says, urging her with his eyes. Tessa pauses. Normal. To not have this... energy inside. She knows it's the reason her grandfather kept her in their small life all those years. She knows it's the reason they came, the reason they took her parents away from her. The reason they are chasing her even now. To be normal would take away so many problems. But now she also knows, it could be the reason she changes everything. The reason she brings her parents back. She hardly dares to think the thought, but there it is: She doesn't need the Cloaks. She could bring her family back herself. Her fingers tingle with the power running just beneath the surface.

She shakes her head gently. "I don't want to change."

The Doctor sees it in her eyes, he knows what she is thinking. She is just human enough to think that. That she could bring her parents back. She doesn't realize the effects she could cause for the whole universe, that it would destroy her very self. She could probably do it though, with enough of an energy boost, he thinks."No. No, you cannot. I am taking us somewhere, I am going to alter your DNA to make you the way you ought to be, and then you can go about your life without those things chasing you. You can live your life the way you ought to, full of all those little human triumphs and failures, and without you tearing apart reality at the seams. Without you tearing your self apart," he states.

Rose finds her eyes misty. This is a familiar scene, in a way. Tessa wants to alter time, to have her family back. And the Doctor, of course, is denying it. Rose knows the Doctor is right, but she cannot help but put herself in Tessa's shoes. She cannot help but think of her father. She steps closer to Tessa and puts her arm around her. She wipes at her own eyes with her other hand. "You don't wanna go that way, trust me," she offers Tessa a weak smile. "Some things just can't be changed."

Tessa shakes Rose's arm off rudely, glaring at the Doctor. She turns and walks away, right out the TARDIS door, slamming it behind her. Rose looks at the Doctor, eyes raised. He just shakes his head.

"Kids these days. Why, when I was young we wouldn't dare," he says. Rose laughs, she can't help it.

"What are we gonna do with that one?" she asks.

"Make her completely and utterly human. Whether she likes it or not. I can't have that kind of power running around in a moody teenage girl, why imagine if she catches sight of a boy!" He shakes his head. Rose slaps him on the arm, still smiling. The Doctor laughs, "Well, where to? Where is the most obscure place to hide out for a few days, a place away from contact with other worlds, where no one cares about a silly blue box sitting around for a few days?"

Rose shrugs. The Doctor smiles wickedly. "Good old twenty-first century London!" he exclaims, punching in coordinates,"Now, let me just gather our other passenger..."

"Yeah, good luck with that one. Trust me, I was a teenage girl once," she calls after him as he walks down the steps towards the door. As soon as his back is turned her face falls. Sometimes, when he walks away, she thinks it might be the last time she ever sees him. A fogs hints at the corners of her eyes and she thinks again of promises whispered through smoke.

He finds her sitting in the observation deck, gazing out the large window. Stars, thousands of bright and twinkling lights, are spread out before them endlessly. He sits next to her but she doesn't take her gaze from the galaxy.

"I've never seen the stars from space before," she says softly, her voice a little hoarse from crying.

"It's quite a sight. One never gets over it," he agrees. But his eyes are on her, not the majestic sight below.

"I spent most of my life in a library," she says.

"Nothing wrong with books," he replies.

"Yes, Doctor, when you've never seen half the sights they describe, there begins to be something wrong with books!" Her voice rises. "When you don't remember how it felt to have your mother hug you, or your father tuck you in, when all you can do is read about characters loving or fighting with their parents, it gets to you!"

"I'm sorry, Tessa. I am so, so sorry. But there's nothing that can be done. All we can do is move on. You could leave the books behind, I could show you the universe. All of space and time, you could see it all."

"But I don't want to see it _all_, I only want to see that one time," she insists. Rose was right, this would be difficult. But how could he blame her? Sam and Constance had been her only family, and he knew what it was like to lose your entire family.

"I'm sorry. I wish I could have..." It was the wrong thing to say, because she latches onto it.

"Why, why didn't you? You were there that night, why didn't you save them?"

"I couldn't."

"Why are you always late, Doctor? Time Lord, couldn't you have been on time for once?"

Her words pierce his hearts, and he is no longer arguing with this nearly grown woman in front of him, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks. All he sees is the little girl her pulled from a burning closet, face red from the heat. All he sees is a frightened and crying child, as powerful as a Time Lord yet just as helpless as he had been. Just another one in the universe with no where to call home. Yet she has a way to go home, and he can't let her. The risk is too great. He cannot let her risk everything for her family, though it's all he wants to do. He takes a deep breath, lets it out.

"Tessa, when you were first born I came to visit your parents, came to congratulate them. Your father, proud as any new father, placed you in my arms. Your eyes were so bright, so happy. You weighed next to nothing, but you were heavy, so heavy, with potential. And your father, he asked me, if I would keep you safe."

The tears stream freely down Tessa's cheeks now, her mind struggling to picture clearly a man she barely remembers. All she has are feelings of warmth, the sound of laughter, her's and her father's mixing together as they ran barefoot through a garden. His face is fuzzy, but she feels the love clearer than the Doctor's own face right in front of her.

The Doctor continues, his own eyes watery, "We knew, then, that you were different. Your parents had suspected it, you see. Time dictated that they shouldn't have been together in the first place, and they had both been altered by the traveling they had done. They knew, there might be those who would want to use you. Your father asked me if I would keep you safe, no matter what. He knew, that though he would do anything he could to keep you from all harm, that he may not be able to. Tessa, I told him I would. I promised your parents, both of them, that I would protect you. I kept that promise that night, and I'm not about to break it now. If you do what you want, what you've been thinking of, you will die." His face is determined, his voice urgent. She wipes at her face fiercely with both hands.

"Let me do what they asked, let me do what your parents would want. Honor their memory, at least," he adds gently, holding out his hand. "Come with me."

She looks at his hand for a moment. Her heart is broken, she is tired and weary. She places her hand in his and he smiles, standing. He pulls her up gently. "That's my girl," he grins. He puts aside his sadness, pulling her towards the TARDIS quickly and she finds herself running alongside him, catching his enthusiasm. "Come on then, allons-y!"He shouts, their footsteps echoing down the empty halls.


	6. Chapter 6

Rose holds her sigh inside. London again? She knows its drab grey skyline waits for her outside the old wooden doors, ready to mock her for once again returning. Yet, this time she has the Doctor. Everything is better, more exciting with the Doctor. Even London, where she spent her first nineteen years doing nothing.

Tessa walks to Rose's side. Nervousness rolls off of her in waves. "What's London like?" she asks Rose. "Oh, you know, shops, dirty city, grey skies, fish n' chips..." Rose trails off as she notices the nervous look on Tessa's face. Tessa slips a thin black elastic off her wrist and runs her fingers through her hair, pulling it back in to a messy ponytail. Rose watches, debating whether or not to say something. She remembers being Tessa's age, still self-conscience about her appearance even though she was old enough to have a woman's body. But Rose had had her mother, a woman in the house to show her how to put on makeup, to go shopping with and to teach her how to go around in a skirt without flashing the whole world. It occurs to Rose that Tessa has had none of that. The girl's probably never worn eyeliner in her life. With memories of her own mother fresh in her mind, decides to speak. "Do you know how to do anything fun with your hair?" She asks Tessa.

Tessa shakes her head. She has never done anything put pull it back to get it out of her face. From where he is leaning against the doorway of the TARDIS, the Doctor speaks, "Your mother used to always wear hers in a braid." Tessa looks at him, questions in her eyes. It hurts to have him know more about her family than she does. Rose starts to ask Tessa if she knows how to braid her own hair, then thinks better. "Do you want me to braid it for you?" she offers.

Tessa looks back to Rose. She is hesitant to answer. She likes Rose, but she is embarrassed about how little she knows. She knows so many stories, so many facts, so much about words. But she doesn't know the first thing about hair or even about her own mother. "Yes," she finally answers. She does want Rose to braid her hair, she wants to look and feel like her mother. Rose grins. "Come on then," she grabs Tessa's hand and pulls her over to sit. Rose rummages through a bag, finds a brush and they sit, Rose behind Tessa. Rose gently pulls the band out of Tessa's hair and begins to brush the fine honey waves.

"How long are you girls gonna be?" the Doctor asks.

"Oh shut up, all you need is gel. We ladies need more prep time," Rose reprimands.

"So I've noticed," he replies. Rose shoots him a look.

"I'll just pop out and see if I can't find a good place for some chips then," he says, slipping out the TARDIS' door. Rose pretends to ignore him and goes back to Tessa's hair.

Tessa never had a sister, but she always wished that she had. She had always longed for any family, really. Father, mother, brother, sister. She had her grandfather, of course, but he was quiet and stationary. He never did anything but read or sort books. He did his best, she knew that. But try as he might, he couldn't be the replacement for the family she felt she had lost. She had always thought that is her parents had lived they would have had more children. A sister to have tea parties with, to share clothes and secrets and giggle about boys. And then a little brother, one they could dress in silly costumes when he was little. Tessa had the idea of an idyllic family in her head, as one who has known nothing but stories usually does.

As Rose gently separates the girl's hair in to three even, long sections, Tessa feels she finally knows a little bit what it's like to have a sister. Rose's fingers work deftly and she hums while she braids, reminded of her old school mates and nights they had spent doing each other's make up and swapping stories about boys. Things had been simple back then, but so much more trivial. If you had told fourteen year old Rose that in a few years she'd be saving entire civilizations she'd have called you mad. Yet here she was, destroyer of Dalek's and still sitting and braiding hair. When your life became fantastic you didn't just give up the normal things. Sometimes the normal things were just as fantastic.

"Rose. What if I don't want to change?"

"Hmm?" Rose asks, snapping out of her reverie.

"My DNA. The Doctor wants to make me human, but, what if I don't want to be human?"

"Why wouldn't ya? Nothin' wrong with being human, you know," Rose tells her.

"I know, I know... But, I've got all this power, and I can feel it and I..."

"You wanna change time."

Tessa nods. "Keep your head still," Rose reminds her.

"Oh. Sorry," Tessa blushes.

"I tried it once. Went back to save me dad."

Tessa twists her head around to see Rose's face, despite Rose's protests.

"What happened?" She asks.

"Some flying monsters almost ate the whole time line up. I got to see him, though. Just once, I got to see my dad," Rose says, her voice quiet. Gently, she turns Tessa's head back around and goes back to fixing her hair.

Images of Peter Aaron Tyler flash through Rose's mind. A smile, a crazy idea, a man lying on the pavement.

"If you could, though. If you could save him anyway," Tessa says.

"Without everyone else dyin'?"

"Yeah. But even if it meant you did. Would you do it?"

"In a heartbeat," Rose answers without a second thought.

The door to the TARDIS opens, and the Doctor comes in, his hands full of chips.

"Who's hungry?" he grins.

Rose looks up, wiping tears from her eyes quickly. The Doctor's grin drops. "What, what's wr-" he stops mid-sentence as Tessa looks up, her hair pulled into a lengthy braid falling gracefully down her back. Rose has left a few wispy strands out on purpose and they fall around Tessa's face, framing it in gold. A soft smile spreads across the Doctor's face. "You look just like your mother," he says, shaking his head as the smile turns into a grin. Tessa blushes, looking down. Yet she is happy that she reminds him of her mother. Looking at Tessa now the Doctor is more determined than ever to keep her safe, at all costs. And Tessa, reminded once again of her mother, is equally determined to save her.

Rose looks at them both, unaware of the war about to begin. Time Lord against Tesseract. One meant to keep time safe, versus one meant to wrinkle it.


End file.
